A conversation between two fictitious Khmer was overheard on the bank of the Mékong near Préah Ang Dangkoeur shrine in a Blood Moon night:

Khè Séiha: So, you did it on 16 November 2017, huh!Dèk Chréss: I did what?Khè Séiha: Come on! You arrested him on the night of September on trumped treason charge, locked him securely up in Trapèang Phlong, dissolved his party, and took the 55 seats and distributed them to the scums.Dèk Chréss: Easy job, I just snap my fingers and all the stooges move like crazy. And when I scream a little bit all the 55 run away like rabbits seeing a flashlight.Khè Séiha: Now, you’ve become Caesar!Dèk Chréss: Not only Caesar, but all the dictators in the contemporary world: I’m the longest living tyrant, and still counting.Khè Séiha: You’re going higher and higher and you’re not afraid of being dizzy and falling?Dèk Chréss: I’m on power drug prescription, and don’t need antidote. The sky is the limit.Khè Séiha: You don’t care of what had happened to guys like Bhutto, Saddam, Gaddafi … even Mugabe or Saleh?Dèk Chréss: Look, I pay a very high price for Khmer and foreign bodyguards to protect me. If there is a hole in the wall, so be it!Khè Séiha: Le Duan, Le Duc Tho and Le Duc Anh put “the 2 December 1978 gang in Snuol” including you in power for more than 30 years ago, don’t you now have enough of it? Moreover, all three of them have long gone, and been successively replaced by others. You’re getting old and physically weak by the day, you know or don’t you? Bodyguards have to carry you up the stairs of Angkor Wat terrace, you couldn’t even sit straight, you almost tripped with the Bangladesh prime minister, you’re puffer and puffer, slower and slower, you can’t barely turn your hip, you’re losing hair, you have black spots on your face and sagging eyelid, your incoherent and sometimes self-contradictory speech! Why hanging on?Dèk Chréss: You’re talking nonsense! I know I’m doing good. Singaporean doctors give me clean sheet of health.Khè Séiha: You know, doctors treat the sick and do not feel the pain or shame for you. Your pain is not theirs and they don’t give a shit for your shame. You pay them to tell the world that you’re OK, right or not? And you know damn well that you don’t feel good inside yourself!Dèk Chréss: I’ve already told you I’m OK. And I prayed big at Angkor Wat, you know! My health is nothing compared with my ambition.Khè Séiha: You pray after committing unforgivable sins against the people? You think that Preah Buddha has no divine sense of justice? You’re committing more sins by involving Buddha in your scheme. This is where things are getting tricky: you’ve been going through many periods of time: KR with Pol Pot, deserting him to go to East of the border to be under its protection and influence, fighting Pol Pot’s remnants, UNTAC, putting Samdach Euv back on the throne, smashing his son’s party, winning some elections, and now this: crashing the opposition and putting Samdach Euv’s son back under your armpits. No man can manage politics through different eras of CHANGE of global thinking and globalization. What more do you want for yourself?Dèk Chréss: I have not finished the job that I began: 1) I’m selfish, and I can’t accept that Khmer do not submit to me. 2) You talked earlier about the 3 “Le”; I’m bonded to them as long as I live, and I don’t even want to think what would happen if I “un-bond” myself from them. 3) What I’ve made to feed my family and my power is not self-sustaining.Khè Séiha: Then, you’re no different from a pig; the more a pig eats and is fed, the more it wants to eat, until the farmer puts it in a truck to the slaughterhouse.Dèk Chréss: I was a KR, and later a commie in the Eastern country. As such, I know the rules of the game that were taught to me. The rest is self-taught and self-surviving.Khè Séiha: Self-surviving at the top of the political scale?Dèk Chréss: That’s right.Khè Séiha: At the expense of others?Dèk Chréss: Of course! I’m the big beast ruling this political jungle, ain’t I?!Khè Séiha: You surely are, but the rules of the game have changed since the 1991 Paris Peace Accords and UNTAC.Dèk Chréss: Why invoking that Peace Accords after 25 years? They officialized and baptized me then. And I rule!Khè Séiha: You do rule, but there are new rules that you have to abide by.Dèk Chréss: I already did during earlier elections, but the 2013 elections, Kem Ley’s funerals and the 2017 elections gave me goose bumps and send me unexpected and unintended messages.Khè Séiha: You’re clever enough, why don’t you learn from it and re-draw your philosophical or moral lessons?Dèk Chréss: I’ve spent it all during these 30 years and nothing new could be invented anymore.Khè Séiha: Isn’t this an omen that your time and era are up for change?Dèk Chréss: True, but as I said earlier I have not finished what I began.Khè Séiha: So, you persist to go on, don’t you?Dèk Chréss: I have no choice. They are bigger than me, they rule me and the rules from the Peace Accords and UNTAC do not work for me anymore.Khè Séiha: So, you change the rules to fit your renewed determination.Dèk Chréss: Yes, changing the rules and applying severe repression to get rid of the opposition once and for all. I have to survive.Khè Séiha: Did you expect that once the opposition is dissolved, things will be back to normal like before?Dèk Chréss: No I didn’t. I miscalculated one thing: mixing up the media and civil societies with the opposition. Before, I only had the opposition to go against, but now I have 3 opponents combined together: opposition, media and civil societies. What makes it worst for me is that this combined force has the support of the international community against which I’m ALONE.Khè Séiha: Alone?Dèk Chréss: Yes, alone. Alone. Alone. Not even with C, J and VN; they keep on saying they either “don’t interfere with my internal affairs” or support “stability” but nothing comes out of their capitals louder and stronger than Washington and Brussels have said and put into effect so far… Disheartening!Khè Séiha: Are they your real friends or just politically opportunistic and self-centered friends?Dèk Chréss: I’m trying to figure it out.Khè Séiha: Why so? Strange?Dèk Chréss: My mistake is that on the one hand the “issues of islands” in the South China Sea are no longer in the agenda of the world or ASEAN, and on the other J and VN are pissed off with me as they saw that I sold my entire soul to defend C in every place and instance on “issue of islands” even against J and VN positions.Khè Séiha: In other words, you’re fucked, domestically and internationally.Dèk Chréss: More or less. That’s why I become more and more brutal with the opposition in order to show C, J and VN that I am in control no matter how insane and crazy options I have taken. They know that I’m in a jam, and what they’ve been doing is to hope and wait that I could come up with some kind of “Khmer” arrangements that would alleviate internal political tension that I have personally created to preserve my status.Khè Séiha: Are you saying that C, J and VN are not going to challenge Washington and Brussels?Dèk Chréss: They won’t, because, to them, Cambodia’s internal issue is not worth fighting for.Khè Séiha: Are you then considering yourself as nothing more than a cheap puppet?Dèk Chréss: Oh, oh, no such strong words, please. Politics is always a gamble. If you play, you have to play it hard. Nothing is given free.Khè Séiha: Sorry, I’m a little emotional as I see what you’ve been doing is totally irrational and insane.Dèk Chréss: You might be right, but this is the game I chose to play.Khè Séiha: To play and not winning?Dèk Chréss: No matter, I slog it on. Too late to change direction?Khè Séiha: Really? Who said?Dèk Chréss: Nobody has said anything to me about “changing direction” because they know that I’m not a person who eats my own words. I don’t want to become a “chkè!”Khè Séiha: A chkè? You must be joking! Has any Khmer politician turned into a chkè if she/he doesn’t keep her/his promise or words?Dèk Chréss: The pressure is extraordinarily heavy on me now as I am always running behind the rapid flow of events.Khè Séiha: How about your Frakesh News and Tamarind Tree? Are they doing anything to help you going forward or are they just stupid sycophants that you like to surround you?Dèk Chréss: They are my mouth piece in disguise, therefore they contribute nothing to my thinking. They bark when I throw a bone to them before I open the door.Khè Séiha: Look like you know the type of quagmire you’re in, but yet you remain stubborn.Dèk Chréss: I’m thinking.Khè Séiha: You know you can’t go on behaving like this, don’t you?Dèk Chréss: Yes I do, but to change course is not what I’m born to do. I’m born to be what I want to be, on my own terms, not on other people’s terms.Khè Séiha: Generally, working people retire from their work after more or less 30 years. Why do Khmer leaders never think about that option, but rather hanging on to it like a baby monkey hanging on to the belly of its mother?Dèk Chréss: Samdach Euv and I are the 2 persons who have these 3 common features: low education, never working as employees, and top leaders! Retirement is therefore not in our language.Khè Séiha: So, you must then remember what happened on 18 March 1970?Dèk Chréss: Ha! Ha! 18 March 1970 made me for who I am on 9 January 1979 onward!Khè Séiha: But since 9 January 1979 till now, 29 years have passed: different time, different events, different thinking, different technological era, different people everywhere; it makes you a “passé.”Dèk Chréss: Being a “passé” in Cambodia is a licence to future…Khè Séiha: … on which you have no control.Dèk Chréss: True, I don’t have control over time, but I’m determined to have absolute control and power over people.Khè Séiha: Are you driving towards a cliff? You took the power from the people and you still continue to oppress them?Dèk Chréss: Choice, I don’t have. I’ll break them until they are broken.Khè Séiha: You’re becoming more KR than the KR you’ve been. If so, you’re slowly opening the ECCC’s door to welcome you as case 008 or 009 or 010 or whatever. Hope you don’t forget that a case against you has already been registered at the ICC at The Hague. Dèk Chréss: Don’t talk misfortune, please.
Khè Séiha: You miserably create your own misfortune. If you break them, you will never repair or mend them. Sometime broken china vase could be restored, but the man who can restore the trust and confidence of the people after having broken them to pieces hasn’t been born yet.Dèk Chréss: What’s the alternative?Khè Séiha: Are you thinking about reviewing the whole enchilada?Dèk Chréss: I’m listening.Khè Séiha: You’re still have the power, but the power that you took from the people after July 2017 elections must be returned to its legitimate owner.Dèk Chréss: How can I? Abrogating those laws? Releasing the opposition from Trapèang Phlong?Khè Séiha: That’s right. If those laws were created by men of yours, they could be dismantled by men of yours. If the opposition was arrested and jailed by men of yours, he could be released by men of yours. Men create, men destroy, men recreate.Dèk Chréss: It sounds simple but I can’t do it.Khè Séiha: Why not? Where there’s a will, there’s a way.Dèk Chréss: It will involve a hell lot of things and my guys will be wondering what’s going on?Khè Séiha: Since when you worry about those guys who jump when you tell them to jump?! If you could organize everything to reach this point, who tells you that you can’t undo those things?Dèk Chréss: You have a point.Khè Séiha: Moreover, you engineer and orchestrate everything, and your name is nowhere to be seen on those papers, why not be a little gentle to history about yourself and your family?Dèk Chréss: I can feel the quiet resistance and the air of defiance in the eyes of the garment workers and my FB no longer carries weight that it once did.Khè Séiha: You mean credibility and popularity?Dèk Chréss: Yeah, both of them plus mockery and daily virulent challenges.Khè Séiha: Critical time calls for critical thinking and analysis; you are standing on the highest point of your fortune wheel, and it spells peril for you.Dèk Chréss: It’s past midnight; time to go.Khè Séiha: We talked earlier about Caesar. Don’t forget: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s”. In other words, render unto the people the power that is people’s. Good night!

Have you seen any scam walking around in your neighborhood? Because 44 of them have been seen entering the national assembly to take over the seats anti-constitutionally to pretend to represent more than 3 millions people who never ever voted for them.

Merriam-Webster defines scum as a low, vile, or worthless person or group of people. Such a person is regarded as a despicable and shameless element of society.

So the banana state not only that it is run by an autocrat that concentrates all 3 powers in his hands (legislative, executive and judiciary) it now has scums as legislators who in cahoots with the autocrat will transform the state into an absolute despotism; he took the power from the people and distributed it to scums that behave worst than pigs that eat anything or garbage.

If your students wondered why politics in the City of Tonlé Buon Mouk has reached such a low-level of putridity and rottenness, please refer them to Noteworthy News page that extensively archives the flow of events and particularly this article by Geoffrey Cain in The Nation. However, it is hoped that none of your students has anything to do, be it family or friendship or business relationship, with these 44 scums because, if he/she had, what and how would she/he behave in front of millions of honest and law-abiding citizens who abhor such a public and anti-constitutional thievery? It is also hoped that history will put the names of these 44 scums on public display that never the country in future will put its trust in their morally filthy and besmirched hands.

A Phnom Penh Post’s article titled “Mixed feelings as unelected lawmakers are sworn in to National Assembly” should win the prize for the best title of the year! By the way – and just for fun! – which of the two: “The Forty Robbers” in The Arabian Nights’s Ali Baba or the The Forty Four Scums – all thievery being equal – has a better moral ground? You and your students are the judges!

Your students might also ask why replacing the democratically and officially elected lawmakers with those scums when the state institutions and laws are all there for the country to go forward following the spirit of the 1991 Paris Peace Accords and the ensuing May 1993 elections under the auspices of UNTAC? Well, we did in the past have had multiple conversations on those issues, for example: The Weak and Desperate Strongman, Generation “DEMOCRACY”, 2016: The Year of Mortal Repression, Will the one-man show go on forever, Can They Really Prevent “Color Revolution”, or If He Were Overthrown, What Does That Mean for the Country? If your students put them all together and see them as a forest not as individual trees, everything would come out clearly as to the motives of such “scummery”. To all that, your students could add (1) the paradigm of wealth that the autocracy has amassed through the destruction of the country natural resources, the sell out of those resources to private and external interests, the corruption and nepotism at every level of the administration, and (2) the undeniable image of the shift of the population mind and choice during the 2017 communal elections.

The equation that the autocracy has to solve is how to protect the mass of wealth that it has accumulated since the departure of UNTAC – remember, these guys had barely the minimum necessary to survive between 1979 and 1993 – and to stay in power at the same time. In other words, stay in power at all cost to protect the wealth, and use the wealth to corrupt the institutions in order to protect the power. Power is the drug, and wealth buys drug! The wheel is come full circle!

Autocracy is fully aware of the popular and electoral hurdles it has to overcome, and the more it displays its bodyguards/police/military fire power to scare the public, the more the public becomes conscientious of its devilish scheme, the more it’s become harder for it to convince them. The audio tapes that were leaked, whether it was voluntary, incidental or accidental, does tell what has been going on inside the autocratic headquarters and what the tapes did not explicitly tell: dissension, unhappiness, lost of trust and lost of national perspectives.

The autocrat breeds the scums to reinforce its farm of absolute power as Mary Astell, an English writer, once said: “The scum of the People are most Tyrannical when they get the Power, and treat their Betters with the greatest Insolence.”

Meanwhile, history of Cambodia continues its course to show that all ingredients are in place for an unexpected turn of events as change of power was always through un-democratic means and force as:
– King Sihanouk and all popular movements fought in many years for the independence of the country in November 1953 from French colonialism;
– Lon Nol Ousted Prince Sihanouk in a coup d’état in 1970;
– Pol Pot ousted Lon Nol in April 1975 through long and bloody internal war;
– With military help from foreign country, the ex-KR-now-turned-autocrat ousted Pol Pot and took power on 9 January 1979;
– What will happen next is your students’ guess, but either history will repeat, or the power that the autocrat took away from the people must be returned to the people in order to stop the history wheel to continue to turn.

Herodotus, once, said: ‘Men’s fortunes are on a wheel, which in its turning suffers not the same man to prosper for ever.”

How low can it gets when a signatory of the “1991 Paris Agreement on a Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Cambodia Conflict, Agreement concerning the Sovereignty, Independence , Territorial Integrity and Inviolability, Neutrality and National Unity of Cambodia, and Declaration on the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Cambodia” publicly declared that such agreements are dead, whereas it has been the results of those agreements that have made him the autocrat he is now? Martin Luther King Jr., once, said: “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

Well, if the autocrat believes in what he said, the other 18 States signatories should challenge his view for the simple reason that any international agreement or treaty, once it is ratified, binds the responsibility of each State for ever or until such a time the said agreement or treaty is jointly abolished, canceled or terminated. In the case of Cambodia, Cambodia was represented by the Supreme National Council, then presided by Prince Norodom Sihanouk; the Supreme National Council had 12 members, one of which is the current autocrat.

As the Constitution regulates the governance of the country, international agreement or treaty regulates the governance and responsibility between sovereign and independent states. Only banana state lives in its own despotic shell.

Kavey, on the eve of the 26th anniversary of the 1991 Paris Agreements, it’s time for you to pull out of your library shelf the Blue Book Series of the United Nations titled “The United Nations and Cambodia 1991-1995” (ISBN: 92-1-100548-5) in order to get ready for the questions from your students.

In passing, have your students ever asked why the autocrat glorify so much “7 January 1979” while looking down at the 23 October 1991 Paris Peace Agreements? Answers, if needed, will be provided at another time.

By now, you must be extremely sick and tired of the word “strongman” or “strong man” that every media refers to the autocrat that is not only fighting the flood of the monsoon in the City of Tonlé Buon Mouk but also has become demoniacally despotic against the opposition and its members, the media and the civil societies. Since Noteworthy News page has chronologically and extensively documented on what has been going on since 2 September 2017, let for our part talk about something else and try to answer some of the questions raised by your students, like why the strongman is weak and so desperate. Oxymoronical, isn’t it?!

Merriam-Webster provides two definitions to the word “strongman”:
– a politician or leader who uses violence or threats;
– a man who performs in a circus and who is very strong.

However, Thesaurus gives three definitions:
– a person who performs remarkable feats of strength, as in a circus;
– a political leader who controls by force; dictator;
– the most powerful or influential person in an organization or business, by reason of skill in the formulation and execution of plans, work, etc.

Merriam-Webster gives the definition of “weak” as: lacking strength, mentally or intellectually deficient, not factually grounded or logically presented, not able to function properly, deficient in the usual or required ingredients, not having or exerting authority or political power.

Merriam-Webster also defines “desperate” as: having lost hope, giving no ground for hope,involving or employing extreme measures in an attempt to escape defeat or frustration, suffering extreme need or anxiety, involving extreme danger or possible disaster.

The questionsthat your students have asked could be reformulated as follows:
– What motivates the autocrat to adopt current policy of dictatorial repression towards Cambodian people and institutions?
– How strong is the strongman in ruling Cambodia?

Before going forward, there is an unmovable and solid premise that has to be anchored in one’s mind: The autocrat was a revolutionary communist, a rebel Khmer Krâhâm and a full-fledged member of the genocidal Khmer Rouge of Pol Pot and Ieng Sary. The fact that he betrayed his movement and sought political refuge and ideological mentorship in a foreign country changes nothing to his conviction and loyalty to what he had learned in his revolutionary youth: power, once acquired, must be preserved at any cost. Once a Khmer Rouge, always a Khmer Rouge.

In Noteworthy News page, your students can find plenty of views, opinions, information, analysis and comments by a plethora of pundits, writers, journalists and reporters to whom appreciation and gratitude are honorably extended because without them our knowledge would be blind of both eyes.

Fear is a new-born monster that haunts the autocrat since July 2013; that monster became bigger in July 2016. He can’t wipe out from his mind and eye the million of Cambodians flowing in the streets of the City of Tonlé Buon Mouk and also towards Takéo. Never in his lifetime has he ever been greeted similarly; never has he ever been acknowledged and received so warmly and wholeheartedly by the mass of million; never has he ever been solemnly and proudly respected by the mass of million. The ego was shot and wounded by an invisible arrow made of Khmer conscience and awakening, a mass of million of Khmer citizens that he refuses to acknowledge their true love for the country and the democracy that they have just been endowed. The message was clear and visible, but he can’t see or nor read due to optical deficiency, perhaps.

Then came the results of the 2017 communal elections. The “dot” on the “i”. The monster has grown up and played hard, but quietly. The fear has increased in intensity and there is no medical remedy available, even from Singapore! Paid consultants could not provide different mathematical and scientific projections. The trend is now known and unchangeable towards July 2018. The party base is stunt, quiet, shuts their mouth, shrinks and feels embarrassed. Higher up in the party echelon, same attitude of languor and lassitude. At Koh Pich, what he sees is rows and rows of uninterested, cold, incurious and insensible audience. Fear and uncertainty are all over their face as well. Garments workers are now cajoled day after day with promise of every sort including photo-ops of casual lunches “à la Khmère.” But the inconvincibles remain inconvincible; they know the difference between hypocrisy and sincerity, principle and baloney. Dignity is always behind their mask and the smile at the sewing machines.

Fear has been joined by two new companions: panic and despair.

10 months to go and the party is lethargic: no new ideas nor thinkers, no new platform, no perspective nor inspiration, and no road map to the future. Party, assembly, senate, government, justice are the same marionettes executing and marching to the order of the autocrat. On stage, marionettes look happy because they are brainless and manipulated; but when the show is over they are a pile of discarded and valueless puppets. What to do to escape the inevitable? Without power and with their marketable skills below zero, they would be reduced to the status of being ruled and governed; it would be too shameful to accept it. This is where the old Khmer Rouge devilish tactic resurrects and creeps out: dictatorship, repression, jail and guns. To hell with democracy! To hell with rule of law! To hell with respect of human rights and dignity. To hell with freedom of expression or association! To hell with whoever disagrees with me!

Fear in facing the 2018 elections and possibly losing it is the internal weakness of the man who lacks courage and prowess and who feels so insecure to be a real man in the battle of ideas, perspectives, programs and vision for the country and its people, in other words , the battle at the ballot box.
Where is his intestinal fortitude to face the challenge of a democratic, free and fair election? His heart and guts fail.
Does red revolutionary valor melt in the mass of accumulated corrupted wealth that he can’t enjoy in-or-out of the country? Fear of losing that wealth weakens the audacity and brazenness that he once had in poverty and rebellion time.
Does the man at the age of 65 still have the physical and intellectual daringness and intrepidity of his youth to contest the young democracy and the thirst for freedom aspired by new and different generations of Cambodians? No man is made of stone unless he’s a sculpted statue standing alone and decorated with pigeons droppings.
Can he, in his loneliness, picture lines of voters throughout the country dropping their ballot in the box? He can’t anymore when such image of possible reality gives him cold feet. A man or a chicken!?

If fear and despair are not the motive, let him prove that he can enter the electoral arena with all the contestants like in July 2017, that he is a man who is not afraid of another man in front of the ballot box where the people of Cambodia are the judges and arbiters. Mano a mano, with ballots as gloves. Once he’s in the arena, let close the gate and let the monster loose! Ave!

If he won fair and square, he would be able to restore his dignity and his ego recover its pride and vanity. If he lost, history may have nice words towards his legacy.

Not long ago – courtesy of The Phnom Penh reporting – he also publicly and ignominiously said to the garment workers that “the 1991 Paris Peace Accords .. was dead in the water.” He was showing off his ignorance to the local workers, but he has no courage to officially and diplomatically communicate his belief to the 18 State that were signatories to the said Peace Agreements. A weak strongman talks the talk but never walks the walk. A fool has a big mouth and a very small brain.

It’s not yet too late to make a trajectory adjustment. Failing that, the presumed strongman is not only weak and desperate, but he turns himself into a coward dictator.And as the world has known, every dictator, past and present, on this planet, commands no respect and admiration from the people he rules, and only sycophants and flatterers shower him with false praise and approval. However, once he’s gone, it’s his descendants who have to live in shame and dishonor. Any memory about Pol Pot, his leader, once?

For ease and quick reference that your students and you might need in the future, this letter contains links that speak volume about difference when words were spoken and when the speakers change their attitude. Is this hypocrisy in Khmer politics, or are Khmer politicians truly hypocritical?

RFA’s article reproduced a long sentence pronounced by the strongman that contains his dim and gloomy view not only about himself but also about the situation ex-post his era. If what he said is what he meant, there is no doubt that the tone and the substance betray the strength and power that he is holding autocratically. Like the flattened Michelin tire man, the strongman is unplugged!

– Is this a self-premonition that, like in Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”, forebodes “And now, the end is near”?
– Or is this an admission of his own vulnerability as a human nature with life and death?
– Or is this an acknowledgement that the erosion of power has not only sapped his autocratic regime but also affected his own health and governing capacity?
– Has the happiness in governing autocratically already died, been buried and instead embodied in Satan of madness, rage and delusion?
– What has happened to the idea and desire to rule the country until 90 years of age?
– Why all of a sudden talking about death by voluntarily omitting its cause?
– Why associating death with end of power, when power can be transferred or ended without death?
– Has self-doubt invaded the arrogant confidence?
– Has invincibility started to abandon the suit of armor and the metallic helmet that was donned for 33 years?
– No Buddhist of sincere faith and tenet wish nobody’s death, but they wish the destruction and death of autocracy.

This is where nonsense meets sheer lunacy.
– If he disappeared, why his ministers and minions have to disappear concomitantly or simultaneously?
– If he disappeared, would his progenies who also happen to be ministers or “èk odom” melt away like wax in the heat?
– What magical force does he have to drag his ministers and minions to the same end as his?
– Is he a guru that can order his disciples to jump into the fire when he says “jump”?
– Are these the words of a madman in trance or delirium?
– On the contrary, what would his ministers and minions and their families think when they hear such foolishness and madness?

3. “គឺ​មាន​តែ​ក្រុម​យោធា និង​នគរបាល​ដែល​ឋិត​នៅ​ក្នុង​មុខងារ​សាធារណៈ​ទេ ដែល​ជា​អ្នក​គ្រប់គ្រង​សភាពការណ៍។”«នៅ​ទី​នេះ​មាន​អគ្គបញ្ជាការ ប៉ុល សារឿន អគ្គ​នគរបាល​ជាតិ នេត សាវឿន អគ្គបញ្ជាការ​រង និង​មេបញ្ជាការ​អាវុធហត្ថ​លើ​ផ្ទៃ​ប្រទេស សៅ សុខា“
So, three names are presented to the public; three names to carry the flag of repression and dictatorship; three names forming a triumvirate. If it comes true, who would be triumvir Julius Caesar, who Pompeius Magnus and who Marcus Crassus?
Assuming the designated triumvirate would take place, this would be the first time in Khmer history that three men would share power.
– Well, well, well: three Khmer sharing power? Three armed factions sharing power? Only fools fool themselves; fools can’t fool Khmer. Anybody still remember “the trio” on political campaign billboards throughout the country, one already gone, now only two still present?
– What are the national doctrine and political philosophy that bind these three triumvirs together?
– Would the soldiers, policemen and bodyguards be willing to continue part of the army of repression after the final departure of the autocrat?
– Why does the autocrat omit to mention the role that he has been nurturing for his progenies? Aren’t they good enough that daddy has to exclude them from leadership? Or are they rather be part of a plan “to go abroad”? SOS – Save Our Souls!

4. “ប៉ុន្តែ​នៅ​មាន​បណ្ដា​អង្គភាព​ដទៃ​ទៀត​ដែល​ពេល​ហ្នឹង​ជួនកាល​មាន​ការ​ញុះញង់ គឺ​វាយ​គ្រឹប​តែម្ដង”
Now the real secret is finally revealed! So a secret force is hidden somewhere and even unknown to the triumvirate’s forces. Is it the fishing boats in the waterways across the country? Among the car mechanics along major arteries or the worshipers in Bokor? The leftovers from 9 January 1979 and 1985?
The mentor has become master, and the mentee is bonded for life to the mentor whose eyes are sharper than Cyclops.

5. “ទៀ បាញ់ ក៏​អស់​តំណែង ស ខេង ក៏​អស់​តំណែង តើ​ទៅ​ត្រួត​ពី​ណា​ទៀត?”
Oh, Kacvey, these two individuals must feel betrayed by the man they have been serving through thick and thin for decades. Politics has no gratitude or loyalty. Especially, ex-KR politics. Once a KR, always a KR. KR’s wheel of power always remains bloody and soulless.
So, while still alive, he’s openly pitting the triumvirate against his two vice-premier “samdachs”, and at the same time sacrificing them in plain daylight to the altar of his self-destructive ego.
Sooner or later, the public will know whether or not these two vice-premiers are real “men” with principle and self-esteem, or are they just disposable “pawns” on the autocratic chess board.

6. “ទុក ហ៊ុន សែន ដើម្បី​នឹង​គ្រប់គ្រង”
How desperate it sounds of him to plead for his own status quo! A desperate man creates his own despair in his own desperate situation. In a state of despair, he not only oxymoronizes but also does double talking in order to confuse the public: at the beginning he created a hypothetical situation of his departure “ប្រសិនបើ​លោក​ស្លាប់​ភ្លាម“, but at the end he pleads for remaining in power “កុំ​ចង់​ឲ្យ ហ៊ុន សែន ងាប់ ទុក ហ៊ុន សែន ដើម្បី​នឹង​គ្រប់គ្រង”
It’s against any religious beliefs and virtuous principles to abandon a sick man or a desperate one. Let the experts in medical filed take care of the illness, but let Cambodians of all walks of life wish him well in his battle against his health trouble. Nobody ​”ចង់​ឲ្យ ហ៊ុន សែន ងាប់“, but nobody wants to “ទុក ហ៊ុន សែន ដើម្បី​នឹង​គ្រប់គ្រង” for ever.

Cambodians want him to respect, in a civilized and democratic manner, their voice and their concerns towards the elections on 22 July 2018 and thereafter:
– No cheating.
– No killing 100 to 200 people.
– No smashing teeth.
– No beating with bamboo sticks.

In the entertainment world, a one-man show is not rare on theaters row. Unfortunately, when the performer falls sick, for example, the show has to be cancelled because no understudy can substitute the star. If sickness persisted and the star could not return to the stage for a long period of time, the promoter or producer has to close the show and bear the ensuing financial consequences.

In the City of Tonlé Buon Mouk, a one-man show has been on for 32 years on the politico-theatrical stage. The star writes the script, performs, rules the actors guild, dictates tickets cost, threatens potential artist or competitor who wishes to set up similar show, blasts any critics that do not give him a rave review, and believes that his one-man show is the only show that will be “there” forever. The business of this one-man show has made not only the star but also those associated with him extremely wealthy. Radio and television stations never stop praising his acts with the same old and outdated rhetoric repeated day-in-day-out.

Kacvey, how many times have your students seen that show “live”, heard it on the radio, seen it on television screen or FB? Poor students, they ought to be sick and tired of it and must wish that the show be ended one day, once and for all. Performing art is not the exclusivity of one man, never was and never will. Which of us do not know Charlie Chaplin, Lawrence Olivier, Richard Burton, Angela Lansbury, Liza Minnelli, Mel Brooks, Carol Channing, Sid Caesar etc …?

Well, the star of the one-man show in the City of Tonlé Buon Mouk is now 65 years of age and the City is abuzz with news, rumors and speculations about the state of his health and his whereabouts. While he keeps on proclaiming that he is going to perform for another 10 years, let leave the natural matter to nature, and the star to his star. But it is fair to ask what would happen to the show and the theater if the star is no longer available or capable of performing on stage, as it is briefly discussed in the opening paragraph of this letter? Has he ever asked himself what would happen to the stage the first day after the end of the 10th year or during the 11th year following his departure, as expected or unexpectedly?

Therefore, three words should be borne in mind: Chaos, Uncertainty and Paralysis. Or the CUP.

Which of us in the world do not know Franco, Pinochet, Duvalier, Idi Amin, Haile Mariam, Saddam Hussein etc … and Pol Pot and their criminal and murderous “acts” against their own people.?

A couple of weeks ago, you asked your students about their readiness for the commune elections on Sunday 4 June 2017, and you indicate that their positive responses are so encouraging that even yourself was surprised by their enthusiasm and determination.

Generation “DEMOCRACY”, here it comes!

Generation “DEMOCRACY” has come of age, after having:

studied and learned the tragic and genocidal history of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge,

survived to this date with their parents and grand-parents the corrupted, nepotistic and autocratic rule of the ex-Khmer Rouge,

seen how the constitutional and acquired rights of citizenry are abused by the power (civilian, military and police) in existence with the explicit complicity of the kangaroo courts,

been victims of lands expropriations and decimation of natural habitat,

witnessed the continuous destruction of Cambodian natural resources,

endured the constant threat of arbitrary arrest and detention for expression of different ideas and opinions,

been subjected to the blindness of political obscurity of the current national leadership whose focus is mainly to protect the tyrannic power and the dishonest wealth accumulated by members of the tribe,

been astonished and shocked at how political figures who do not toe the line of autocracy are cold-bloodedly assassinated, brutally beaten by hired thugs, illegally wiretapped, and arbitrarily arrested and detained on artificial and trumped charges,

perceived that the ruling party, after 30 years of political monotony, has transformed Cambodia into a private fiefdom under the control of one man – and one man only – without accountability whatsoever,

experienced the economic hardship due to the disparity in income distribution between the corrupted 1% and the remaining 99%, and, last but not least,

given no opportunity to try or to taste the flavor of free and democratic discussions and debates.

Generation “DEMOCRACY”, the time is now yours to show that you are:

responsible citizens for yourselves, your future and Cambodia,

concerned citizens who are equal in constitutional rights and obligations with those who seek your vote and voice,

citizens who care about Cambodia that belongs to all of you together,

independent and sovereign in expressing your political opinion through secret ballot,

the owners of your belief, conviction and principle,

confident that “change” is the way that the future, since time memorial, always conducts itself.

Generation “DEMOCRACY”, you must remember that the world moves with constant changes. The most original and philosophical idea and demonstration of change are contained in an ancient Chinese classic called “Book of Change” (Yijing 易经). It goes as follows: “In ancient times, when Baoxi had come to rule over all under Heaven, he looked up and contemplated the images exhibited in the sky and looked down and observed the processes taking place on earth. He contemplated the patterns on the birds and the beasts and the properties of the land … Thus he devised the Eight Trigrams (bagua 八卦), in order to communicate with the unknown and classify the relations of every object and phenomenon on earth… Change must occur when the existing way is no longer adequate, and only through change can a new workable way be found. As long as it works, the existing way lasts. Heaven protect those who change with the change of circumstances.”

Generation “DEMOCRACY”, ask yourself: If you can’t change, who else could?
By voting, you have the capacity to move things forward. You vote, you change, and “democracy” is yours, your Cambodia.
It’s up to you to count on yourself.
Don’t live in the future with the outdated.
Get rid of the old Khmer Krâhârm’s leftover image and symbol.

Generation “DEMOCRACY”, you have the limitless power to shake up the status quo.
Exercise it, en masse.BE THE MASTERS OF YOUR OWN DESTINY!

At the outset, please allow me to quote Koul Panha, Executive Director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia: “This book is long overdue and a welcome addition to the literature on contemporary Cambodian politics and international relations. It is an indispensable reference book for practitioners, theorists, activists and students engaged in elections everywhere.”

The 341-pages book referred to is: CAMBODIA VOTES – Democracy, Authority and International Support for Elections 1993-2013, by Michael Sullivan, published in 2016 by Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, under ISBN No.: 978-87-7694-187-1.

The summary on the back cover page speaks volume:
“Elite power and the evolution of “authoritarian elections” in CambodiaThis detailed study charts the evolution of internationally assisted elections in Cambodia beginning in 1993 with the vote supervised by the United Nations Transitional Authority (UNTAC). Although the UNTAC operation was unprecedented in its size and political scope, the less-than-democratic outcome of the 1993 vote (with Hun Sen and his Cambodian People’s Party losing but remaining in power) began two decades of internationally assisted elections manipulated and controlled by Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People Party (CPP).

“Simultaneously, disparate international actors have been complicit in supporting “authoritarian elections” while at the same time attempting to promote a more democratic transparent accountable process. This apparent paradox has produced a relatively stable political-economic system that serves the interests of a powerful and wealthy ruling elite coalesced around the personality of Hun sen supported by international donors but at the expense of overall positive socio-economic and political change. At the same time, international involvement has also allowed opposition forces to co-exist alongside a repressive state and to compete in elections that still hold out the possibility for change. This was evidenced by the voter backlash against CPP governance during the recent 2013 elections.

“The book is especially timely because the results of the 2013 national elections suggested the CPP’s grip on power might be loosening. Now the crucial 2017 local and 2018 national elections are looming. As such, by analysing the current situation in Cambodia, its origins and possible outcomes, Michael Sullivan offers a key reference work to all those engaged with Cambodia and its future development.”

Michael Sullivan is currently an advisor to the Committee for Free and Fair Elections (COMFREL) in Phnom Penh. He has been living and working in Cambodia full-time since 2007. He worked at the Center for Khmer Studies (CKS) from 2008-13, and served as the Director from 2009. He completed a doctorate in Political Sciences at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 2005. As well as elections, he has researched and published on Chinese aid to Cambodia and conservation and development issues.

Enjoy the reading and the reflections upon it! Change is not hopeless.

Ah, 14 January 2017 could be a day to be remembered! Both parties “chatted” with chats et chiens, domestic pets!

I guess you were not disappointed by not being invited to both the “wine and dine chatting party with 1,000 journalists” and the forum of opposition not only in Phnom Penh but also in France, the US and Canada. Well, you did not miss or lose anything: on the contrary, you gain a lot by keeping your dignity intact. Can’t wait to read what those 1,000 journalists or others write in their column on Monday morning(*).

One whole month of January has now gone into the new year, and stage curtain is already open on Cambodia with extremely critical reports: